Thankyou To Some Wonderful People

We have just come back from our second week of camp - I was grateful to have a week in between the two weeks of camp to recover a little!

I have been impressed by the wonderful leaders we had on the camps. The last camp was for the youngest campers - so more tiring, especially when many of the leaders had done the previous camp. 

The tent leaders worked hard…. very hard! They made themselves available to the children, and they didn’t complain when doing extra chores such as cleaning toilets, washing the huge cooking pans, laying tables for breakfast late at night etc.

I was blessed by them, and so were the campers.

They  knew how to have fun - and pulled the campers into that fun. They made me laugh out loud every day.

They also loved Jesus so much - they wanted the kids to know about him too…. the seeds of an evangelistic heart.

As I looked at these leaders, many of them quite young, I thought - “the future of kids work at our church is in safe hands”.

It was good to see a range of gifts coming to the fore - not just the up front ones, but gifts that keep the essential background stuff going and the camps running safely.

As an ageing children’s worker living in a world where it feels as though everyone wants to be a worship leader rather than a children’s worker - that did my heart good!

But on a more personal note - I was blessed by how the leaders related to me. Even as an older, disabled leader, I felt accepted.

I often feel guilty because I can’t do the extra stuff and end up sitting down whilst all the extra work goes on around me. On a site where I can’t use a wheelchair, my energy gets used up quickly. If I have £5 worth of energy, £3 is used up just getting to the showers, getting ready and then across to the 7.30 leader’s meeting. That leaves me with £2 worth of energy for the rest of the day….

I didn’t have to explain any of that to these lovely leaders - they just accepted my limitations, no questions asked, and that tells me another important thing…

The gift of a servant heart - so vital in children’s work - is alive and well in the leaders of Activate camp.

Thankyou all - you blessed my socks off!